We live in a world in which our right to keep and bear arms is constantly under attack just about everywhere: Hollywood, the news media, social media, public schools, universities and legislatures. There are multi-pronged assaults that scheme to disarm us through lies and deception.

Little is said about the use of arms in furtherance of the natural human right of self-defense. In any given year in the United States, there are untold millions of crime victims who have used guns to defend themselves from predators. In their honor, I hereby proclaim June as National Defensive Gun Use (DGU) Awareness Month.

As gun owners, we must unite to create awareness and end crime and victimization through the lawful, defensive use of firearms. We should not have to live in fear that we can be victimized at anytime, anywhere. Here are some ways you can participate in National Defensive Gun Use Awareness Month:

Wear your favorite Second Amendment group’s hat or shirt or other apparel. There is absolutely nothing controversial or embarrassing about owning guns. It’s a matter of pride. You are a member of a rare breed of human: an American. You constitute only 4% of the world population and are blessed with this natural right that governments lording over the remaining 96% of the world population don’t trust with. Whether it’s the National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Firearms Policy Coalition, National Association for Gun Rights, National African American Gun Association, Pink Pistols, AAPI Gun Owners, or other group, wear your apparel with pride.

Raise awareness online. Participate in social media debates by using this hashtag: #DGUAwarenessMonth. Download infographics from GunFacts.info. Some of them are very useful, such as this pie chart of crimes prevented by Defensive Gun Use.

Share stories of Defensive Gun Use. There are daily incidents of the defensive gun use that are reported in the media. Most defensive gun uses don’t get reported to the police or the press, but those that do are valuable. Share those stories. If you’re on Twitter, follow the Heritage Foundation’s Defensive Gun Use Tracker. If you’re on Facebook or some other social media platform, share their Defensive Gun Use Dashboard. Share Defensive Gun Use (DGU) stories from Bearing Arms. Don’t forget to use #DGUAwarenessMonth.

Make a social media post in support of National Defensive Gun Use Awareness Month. Here is sample language you can use: “This National Defensive Gun Use Awareness Month, [I/we] honor the millions of people who have saved their lives and those of others by the lawful, defensive use of guns in this country.”

Highlight the lies of the gun control movement. Talk about how they use suicides as part of “gun violence” statistics to inflate numbers. Talk about how they use suicides and homicides of 18- and 19-year old ADULTS to conflate and inflate the “gun deaths of children and teens.” Share charts that debunk the lies of the gun control movement.

Donate money to your favorite Second Amendment group (and to Gun Facts). Don’t be a free rider. If you’re not getting involved directly, the least you can do is help those who do the fighting for you.

Make a post about how the gun control movement secretly colluded with the CDC. Gun control groups privately communicated with CDC officials, secretly met with them, and got the CDC to remove Defensive Gun Use statistics from their taxpayer-funded website. The media completely buried the story. Share the following web archive snapshots of the CDC’s “Fast Facts: Firearm Violence Prevention” webpage that show how the CDC pulled those numbers in collusion with gun control groups:

• May 2, 2022 Snapshot of the page shows a range of 60,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses each year and provides a link to a Consensus Study Report at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
• May 6, 2022 Snapshot removes the Defensive Gun Use data.

Check on your local public school. If the local school that you pay taxes for organizes a #WearOrange event to spread lies from the gun control movement, demand that they also organize a #DGUAwarenessMonth event to counter those lies. If they don’t, contact FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) to sue them.

Last but not least, make a post online offering to take a non-gun owner to the gun range. Teach someone how to safely use guns in defense of their life, liberty, and property. Bring a new gun owner on board.

There’s this old saying, “A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” It doesn’t have to be that way if the Truth already has its boots on and is ready to hit the ground running. Make sure you help the Truth. Pledge your participation in #DGUAwarenessMonth.